Scientists Are Close To Creating A Generation Without AIDS

There are no scientific reasons the world can't chart a path,
albeit a difficult one, toward the world's first AIDS-free
generation, a top federal health official said Sunday.

"There is no excuse scientifically to say we cannot do it," said
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, speaking to the media at AIDS 2012, an
international AIDS conference, which began here Sunday. "What we
need now is the political and organizational will to implement
what science has given us."

The challenges of the AIDS pandemic are great, Fauci said.
Worldwide, the disease has claimed more than 30 million lives,
and 34 million people today are infected with HIV, the virus that
causes the disease. About 2.5 million people worldwide still die
each year, Fauci said.

Yet scientists are talking enthusiastically about recent
discoveries that, when combined, have the potential to
dramatically curtail new infections. Last week, leading
researchers called for a new push to cure the disease. In another
landmark finding that Fauci described as a "slam-dunk, out of the
ballpark," researchers last year showed that getting an
HIV-positive patient's virus under control makes that person
virtually non-contagious.

That suggests that getting proper treatment to more people with
HIV -- 20 percent of whom don't know they are infected -- could
be a powerful tool to stop the spread of the disease, Fauci said.
Most new infections are spread by people who do not realize they
have the disease, he said.

A mantra among AIDS advocates now is "seek, test, treat and
retain," said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse. Public health officials want to test undiagnosed
patients for HIV, treat their disease and retain them in care.

And while those challenges are daunting, Fauci noted that the USA
has always led in the fight against AIDS. The National Institutes
of Health has spent $50 billion on AIDS since 1982.

And the USA has succeeded in other difficult circumstances before
-- such as providing AIDS drugs to Africa. Fauci noted that
"naysayers" were doubtful about PEPFAR, the President's Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief, a $15 billion effort launched in 2003 by
George W. Bush, after consultation from Fauci.

At that time, only 50,000 people in the developing world had
access to anti-retroviral therapy, the drug cocktails credited
with transforming AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic
disease. Since then, PEPFAR -- which received an additional $48
billion in funding in 2008 -- has provided AIDS therapy to nearly
4 million people. The program also is credited with preventing
HIV infection in 200,000 babies by providing drugs to 660,000
HIV-infected mothers.

PEPFAR must be reauthorized by Congress next year. And while many
are focused on cutting the federal budget, Fauci said PEPFAR has
always had support from both Republicans and Democrats. "I can't
imagine not authorizing an overwhelming success," Fauci said.